Mohammad Ashraful

Mohammad Ashraful

Personal information
Full name	Mohammad Ashraful
Born	7 July 1984 (1984-07-07) (age 25) Dhaka, Bangladesh
Nickname	Ash
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm leg spin
Role	Batsman
International information
National side	Bangladesh
Test debut	6 September 2001 v Sri Lanka
Last Test	17 July 2009 v West Indies
ODI debut	11 April 2001 v Zimbabwe
Last ODI	18 August 2009 v Zimbabwe
ODI shirt no.	98
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2001-present	Dhaka Division
2000-2001	Dhaka Metropolis
2008-present	Mohammedan Sporting Club
2009-present	Mumbai Indians
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	List A
Matches	50	147	94	183
Runs scored	2,149	3,049	4,932	3,595
Batting average	23.10	24.00	28.67	22.75
100s/50s	5/7	3/18	13/19	3/20
Top score	158*	109	263	109
Balls bowled	1,495	444	5,938	898
Wickets	19	13	106	27
Bowling average	58.63	33.38	33.99	29.03
5 wickets in innings	0	0	5	0
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	0	n/a
Best bowling	2/42	3/26	7/99	4/28
Catches/stumpings	22/–	29/–	47/–	42/–
Source: CricketArchive cricketarchive.com, 22 August 2009

Career

Test cricket

Ashraful made his test debut on 6 September 2001 against Sri Lanka. In the first innings he was dismissed for 26 runs from 53 balls, but in the second innings he scored his maiden Test century - 114 runs from 212 balls. The century made him the youngest player to score a test century in an international match. There has been some uncertainty regarding his birth date - some sources claim it is July 7, but others, as well as his passport, record it as September 9; although either date would qualify him for his world record status (previously held by Pakistani Mushtaq Mohammad, aged 17 years 82 days in 1960-1).
Following the century, Ashraful began receiving high expectations. However, a prolonged string of poor performances and soft dismissals resulted in him being dropped from the national team. He returned to the team in 2004 against the Indian cricket team and scored his second century, 158 not out, claiming the record for the highest individual Test score by a Bangladeshi. In 2006 he scored his third century, with 136 in the first test against Sri Lanka. In his maiden match as captain of Bangladeshi, during the 2007 season, against Sri Lanka, he made 7 runs in the first innings and the 37 in the second. In the second match of the tour and his captaincy Ashraful was out for a duck in the first innings but scored his fourth century in the second innings. He scored 129 not out, making him the first Bangladeshi cricketer to score 4 centuries. To date Ashraful is Bangladesh's second highest run-scorer in Test cricket behind Habibul Bashar.
During the first Test match of South Africa's 2007-08 tour, Ashraful dismissed AB de Villiers in very unusual fashion: after the ball left his hand it bounced twice, at which point de Villiers attempted to hit the ball but instead sent it straight up instead. Ashraful caught the ball and, despite de Villiers standing his ground, umpire Steve Bucknor confirmed the dismissal. The dismissal was legal per Law 24, section 6 of the Laws of cricket which state the ball must bounce more than twice or roll along the ground to be deemed a no-ball.

One Day International career

Ashraful made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe on 11 April 2001, where he made just 9 runs and Bangladesh lost the match by 36 runs. He had a poor first World Cup - the 2003 Cricket World Cup - making 71 runs at an average of 14.20, with Bangladesh being eliminated in the Group Stage. Despite a poor start to his ODI career Ashraful has been one of the key batsmen in several of Bangladesh's famous victories. He made exactly 100 in Bangladesh's win over Australia at Cardiff in the 2005 NatWest Series, possibly one of the greatest upsets in sporting history. During the 2007 Cricket World Cup, he made 87 from 83 balls against the ICC ODI Championship world number 1 ranked South African team, helping his team clinch a 67 run win, with Ashraful being named the Man of the Match. With 216 runs at an average of 24, he was Bangladesh's highest run scorer in the World Cup. To date, Ashraful is Bangladesh's highest run-scorer in ODIs.

Domestic cricket

When not playing with the national team, Ashraful plays domestic cricket for the Dhaka Division cricket team in Bangladesh's domestic one-day and First-class competitions, captaining both sides on occasion but with no real regularity. In November 2006 he set a league record score of 263, against Chittagong Division for Bangladeshi First-class cricket - although this record has since been bettered by Raqibul Hasan. Ashraful also captains Sonargaon Cricketers, a club in the Dhaka Premier League. He became captain at a crucial period as his team were placed at the bottom and turned team with a second place finish at the end of the season. He played for Rainhill CC in a local cricket league in UK.

Indian Premier League

On 6 February 2009, Ashraful took part in a player auction for the 2009 Indian Premier League. The Mumbai Indians bought him for his base price of US$ 75,000, but he only played one game, scoring just 2 runs.

Captaincy

Although Bangladesh performed well under the captaincy of Habibul Bashar in the 2007 Cricket World Cup, the Bangladesh Cricket Board decided to replace Bashar as the national team ODI captain after losing 2-0 to a touring Indian side in May 2007. There was a lot of criticism of the BCB for their decision from many cricket pundits, including the departing national coach Dav Whatmore, who believed the change was unnecessary.Bashar agreed to step down from the post of ODI captaincy but insisted that he wanted to remain as the national Test captain, but after losing the Test series in the same Indian tour of Bangladesh, the BCB also decided to replace him as Test captain.
The two favourites for the captain's role were Shahriar Nafees (who was vice-captain at the time) and Ashraful. Perhaps due to Nafees's poor form in both the World Cup and the India series the board awarded the captaincy to Ashraful - becoming the second youngest captain of an international cricket team at 22 - with Mashrafe Mortaza replacing Shahriar Nafees as vice-captain of the team.
Ashraful and Mortaza took on these roles from the start of the Sri Lanka tour in June 2007. High hopes were placed on the shoulders of Ashraful by the Bangladeshi fans to motivate the team during the tour, but Bangladesh lost all three of the Test matches by large margins of an innings and 234 runs, an innings and 90 runs and an innings and 193 runs respectively. Ashraful scored a century (129*) in Bangladesh's 2nd innings of the 2nd Test.
Mohammad Ashraful created some controversy in March 2008 when he slapped a fan who called him "rubbish" while he was training at an indoor stadium in Dhaka. This happened at a time when Ashraful was being heavily criticised in the media for his poor form with the bat and questionable tactics on the field as captain. The BCB fined him 25% of his salary for the month of March 2008 for violating the Code of Conduct. He later apologised for the incident.
After an extended run of poor form, Ashraful was sacked as captain in June 2009, after the Tigers' first round exit in the World Twenty20 2009. He was replaced by Mashrafe Mortaza for the tour of West Indies, with Shakib Al Hasan taking the position of vice-captain. It was hoped that Ashraful could climb out of the batting form slump in all formats in the international game with the release of the pressure that the captaincy brought to him.

Career statistics

An innings-by-innings breakdown of Ashraful's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).

Test centuries

No.	Runs	Balls	Opponent	City/Country	Venue	Season
[1]	114	212	Sri Lanka	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2001
[2]	158*	194	India	Chittagong, Bangladesh	MA Aziz Stadium	2004
[3]	136	184	Sri Lanka	Chittagong, Bangladesh	Chittagong Divisional Stadium	2006
[4]	129*	236	Sri Lanka	Colombo, Sri Lanka	P. Saravanamuttu Stadium	2007
[5]	101	193	Sri Lanka	Dhaka, Bangladesh	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium	2008

One-Day International centuries

No.	Runs	Balls	Against	City/Country	Venue	Season
[1]	100	101	Australia	Cardiff, Wales	Sophia Gardens	2005
[2]	109	126	United Arab Emirates	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	2008
[3]	103*	103	Zimbabwe	Bulawayo, Zimbabwe	Queens Sports Club	9 August 2009

Achievements

Test Cricket Awards

Test Matches - Man of the Match Awards:

S No	Opponent	Venue	Season	Match Performance
1	Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo, Sri Lanka	2001/02	1st Innings: 26; 0/63 2nd Innings: 114
2	India	MA Aziz Stadium, Chittagong, Bangladesh	2004/05	1st Innings: 1/29; 158* 2nd Innings: 3
3	Sri Lanka	Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Chittagong, Bangladesh	2005/06	1st Innings: 136; 0/20 2nd Innings: 1; 0/13

One-Day International Cricket Awards

One-Day International Matches - Man of the Match Awards:

S No	Opponent	Venue	Season	Match Performance
1	South Africa	Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh	2002/03	0/36; 52
2	Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club, Harare, Zimbabwe	2003/04	51*
3	Australia	Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, Wales	2005	100
4	Bermuda	Queens Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad	2006/07	29*
5	South Africa	Providence Stadium, Georgetown, Guyana	2006/07	87
6	United Arab Emirates	Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, Pakistan	2008	109
7	Zimbabwe	Bulawayo, Zimbabwe	2009	103*(103)

Twenty20 International Cricket Awards

Twenty20 International Matches - Man of the Match Awards:

 

S No	Opponent	Venue	Season	Match Performance
1	West Indies	The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa	2007/08	1/55; 61

Reference:

• wikipedia.com
• cricinfo.com
• cricketarchive.com
• tigercricket.com